Rugby League offers huge opportunities for talented individuals who can have their name in lights as a reward for their hard work.

But it takes a big man to admit that life as a professional sportsman isn’t all rosy 100 per cent of the time. James Green, the former Hull KR forward, can attest to that.

After helping the Robins reach Wembley in 2015, back-to-back relegations, with the Red and Whites and then Leigh Centurions, saw the prop in need of a distraction, a get-away from the game, if he was to be happy once more and get his career back on track.

Now 28, Green, who played for Rovers between 2012 and 2016, admits he’s unrecognisable to the person he was 12 months ago. A plan was needed for options after rugby and the wheels were firmly put in motion during that often difficult two-year period.

Currently with Bradford Bulls, following a period with Castleford Tigers, the Championship front-rower was keen to air his story on what opportunities are out there for players away from the game.

Had he not taken the leap of faith now to become a qualified mortgage advisor, his mood would certainly be different. Green, pardon the pun, feels right at home.

“Everyone talks about life after rugby, and getting yourself set up for it but myself, getting relegated two years on the bounce, it made it a bit more real,” Green told the Mail.

James Green playing for Leigh Centurions

“Luckily for me, when I went down with KR I’d already signed somewhere else, but getting relegated with Leigh the next year, I was having to take a big pay cut. I lost 50 per cent of my salary overnight and it made me realise how volatile it is and I had to put my life in my own hands.

"If that was to happen again, or I got injured, I would have had nothing to fall back on, whereas now, I have my own business. If rugby does ‘go south’, then I’m not without anything.

“I’ve just turned 28. I’m still ‘full-time’ at Bradford and before I took on all the qualifications, I was sat around doing nothing in my spare time at home, twiddling my thumbs. I was itching to do something productive and I thought why not start it now?”

Working on a self-employed basis for Hull-based company A&L Financial – whose director is ex-FC man Anthony Thackeray – Green has found the perfect balance between time spent on the field and away from the grass.

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But how did he get to this point? What support is out there for players? Green believes that whilst initiatives such as RL Cares and Sporting Chance do plenty for the game, the sport can do more to help players not only when their career comes to an end, but also during their spells wearing their jerseys.

“It’ll take me a few years to gather some momentum so I may as well start now whilst I’ve still got a job in rugby and eventually when it is my full time job I’ve got something there,” Green added.

“Originally I did the qualifications to run my own estate agents. I’ve always liked property and at Leigh, my sponsor was a big estate agents in the area and I picked their brains. They didn’t recommend it – it took them a lot of money to get off the ground and I don’t have those sort of funds! I got chatting to a mortgage advisor and that was more like it for me. I completed the exams in the off-season having started the course in September.

Former Hull KR player James Green

“I spoke to a couple of players, Keal Carlile (ex-Rovers hooker) being one of them, he recommended one in Pontefract, and he put me in for a course.

“You get told that the RFL are there for you, and RL Cares, Sporting Chance. But in terms of them coming to you, it’s not really there. You have to contact them yourselves – we don’t want them to hold our hands – but there’s nobody there to push you in the right direction, saying ‘This is what other people have done’. You have to work it out yourself.

“A lot of people lose money. Some had to enter work, losing two or three year deals. Some had bought houses, had kids off the back of

having this security for it all to be taken away. I was one of the more fortunate ones, I had a year left to run at Leigh, it was just me and the wife.

“Thankfully, rugby players are now getting towards the mentality that you have to have something now. You see more and more, even Super League stars, having their own businesses. Ben Cockayne did it for years, a lot at Leeds lads run gyms, some others run coffee shops… If you make it to the top you have a lot of surplus money and time on your hands.

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"You can either spend it on coffee, which most of us do, or put it to good use. Some get into worse things, such as gambling issues, but it is good to see more and more players self-improve and plan for the future, because you do hear these horror stories from the 80s and 90s, players that have finished and now have nothing.”

Green, though, is thankful for the help and guidance he’s received from a number of parties and says he’d happily become part of a group of players that advises new, current and former players of prospective pathways.

“People from the outside say ‘You shouldn’t have got relegated’, but in other jobs, if anything goes wrong, you’re covered financially. We shouldn’t be any different, one bad season shouldn’t leave you in that sort of position,” Green explained.

“There are a small group of players now that do workshops, Ewan Dowes is one. If you’re lucky, you get ten or 12 years at the top flight, and then what? For me, I’ve been much happier having an identity away from rugby. Back in 2015-16, all I saw myself as was a rugby player. If it was going great, I was bouncing off the walls and great to be around. If I had a bad game, like it was in 2016 with the injuries, suspensions and form, I was really down in the dumps.

Former Hull KR player James Green

“I’ve got a much better life balance now. I can walk away from rugby on a Sunday and on the Monday I’m back to being a mortgage advisor. Life goes on.

“Rugby is my number one focus, it always will be, but this is now a close second. It’s a nice distraction if you’re ever getting bogged down and it does take some of the pressure off. ‘Dropping down’ to the Championship, the lads there seem a lot more level headed. Yes, we all want to win and we’ll do whatever it takes but if we lose, we’re kicking stones but on Monday you’re back to normality. There’s a much better balance now.”

With his wife Beth also running her own successful cake company from home, it’s not only Green that’s bringing home the bacon in two jobs he thoroughly enjoys.

There’s no time like the present, according to the prop, to get the wheels in motion for life after rugby.

“I used to always just get questions on rugby, but now it’s about the qualifications, clients and more. Even to the extent of how my wife’s business is getting on!” Green said.

“We’ve actually got a lot more to talk about between us, and our circle has got bigger too.

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“From the person I was 12 months ago, I’m unrecognisable. I’ve got much more going on, I’m happier, I’m much more interested, I’ve got more conversations with more people around me.

“It’s fantastic and I can’t recommend to players enough that now is the time to get something sorted. Whether it be as a different focus away from rugby or something big when you retire, it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done.

“My best advice would be that, you are more than a rugby player. People only see what you’ve done on a Sunday and with social media and everything now, fans are quick to tell you if you’ve had a good or bad game. You can take it to heart sometimes and your head can explode.

“If you have something else, a different identity, it doesn’t take over as much. We’re human beings, not just rugby players, so see yourselves as more than that. I’d like to think that we’re all pretty intelligent.

“Speaking to employers they like the discipline of professional athletes as they’re programmed from a young age to go above and beyond. There are a lot of opportunities out there, so go and seek them.”